It's About Forking Time
by R-Armchair
Summary: Hope finds himself in a bit of a predicament; Lightning isn't the greatest of help in getting him out of it. A sequel to Eventual Destination
1. Starting Today

**A/N: This story directly follows Eventual Destination. If you haven't read that one, then this won't make any sense.**

Chapter 1: Starting Today

"At this rate, we're never getting married."

"Excuse me?" Lightning whipped around to glare at me.

I hadn't realized that I'd spoken aloud. Though, she deserved to hear it, because it had been at the forefront of my mind for months on end. Each time we'd come up with some sort of date: a month from now, sometime in the spring, or maybe winter, then again summer would be good too, Rygdea would call up with some urgent assignment. All bookings, rentals, plans, etc. had to be trashed because off she'd go, whisked across the globe.

Fang was his second-in-command in name only; he definitely favored Lightning for anything important. This week was the rare occasion where I was actually on break from college and was able to travel with her. The cave we were exploring was cold, damp, and smelled of minerals that leached into your skin even after showering.

"Oh boy, this'll be fun. When my dad calls tonight to ask how we're doing, I can tell him all about how I'm a veteran spelunker. And that Rygdea hates me, and is doing this shit on purpose." I ran a finger along the slick wall beside me, "There is totally nothing here."

"Just because you're cold, doesn't mean you have to act grouchy." Lightning huffed and then kept wandering further into the darkness, her flaming palm casting shadows over me. "How many times do I have to explain? Atomos doesn't act randomly. Majority of the time, his tunnels intersect with these underground pathways. And we always find something or someone in them."

"Sure, but all the video feed that you've shown me wasn't nearly this long. Almost like Atomos wanted you to find those temples or those people. If, and this is a big if… If there is something here, someone probably hid it for a reason. We've had to blast through three cave-ins already… and they looked man-made." I stood still, trying to listen for anything besides our steps and the slow dripping of water. "Doesn't it bother you that we haven't run into a single creature since we broke off from your squad?"

Her boots crunched across the rocky surface. "Will you stop complaining? Please. Gods, Hope. I haven't been home in five weeks. I don't want to spend our entire time together with you bitching."

I slumped forward and rested my chin on her shoulder. So as not to burn her, I extinguished the flames in my hands before wrapping my arms around her midsection. "When you invited me to visit, I pictured less dark caves with bulky gear," I began to whisper into ear, "and more dark bedrooms with nudity."

She reached back to pinch my nose firmly, "Did you forget we're mic'ed? Video feed? Everyone is watching, remember?"

To be completely honest, that had slipped my mind. But I didn't really care. It would be a subtle reminder, that while the military had her loyalty, I had everything else.

"Rygdea?" I said, tapping my communicator to engage it, "Have the other teams come back yet? Light and I haven't seen any indications so far that we've picked the right vein. Anyone see something down the other branches?"

"Nope. Head back if you don't find something in the next ten minutes. Looks like a storm is on its way and we still have to shuttle everyone back to camp."

Lightning's boots clicked on the stone as she strode ahead of me. Clicked. They clicked instead of crunched into the gravel like they'd been doing the past hour. I looked down and saw that the further we walked, the more marble pavement was exposed. The large tiles reminded me of the Vestige, and my stomach dropped.

"We need to turn around." I grabbed at her hand, trying to yank her backwards. "Now."

She stroked her thumb gently over my knuckles. "That feeling is normal. Anytime Fang or I get close to one of the temples, we can sense it. Primal-ly. It's a hangover from when they used them to convert l'Cie. Vanille gets violently ill; that's why she stays behind in communications to watch the feed." She smiled with a bit of shame. "Probably why you started acting out back there, you could feel it even before I could. Sorry I didn't warn you. If I told you, you wouldn't have come. The second you called Rygdea to back out, I knew we must have been close."

"Just to be clear. We aren't going to listen to our built in defensive radar that says, 'DANGER! This is bad! Turn back now!'? Because I'm all about listening to my running away instinct. It's kept me alive."

She snorted and kissed me on the cheek, despite the recording. "Keep telling yourself that. When have you ever run away before?"

"I can start today."

The path widened into a clearly framed hallway. The walls and ceiling were square to each other and covered in the same marble tiles underfoot. The dank atmosphere caused the wet surfaces to shine like mirrors. Magic permeated every cubic centimeter of the air, heavy in my lungs and weighing down my limbs. Even when we'd fought Orphan, I hadn't felt such physical depth to a fal'Cie's magic. Something about the room scared the hell out of me. Whatever was in here was something else.

The rhythmic, yet silent pulse within the room shifted any preconceived notions I had about our hierarchy in this world. If I could put it into words, suddenly the fal'Cie seemed like royalty. But whatever inhabited this space was far closer to a deity.

"What… is that?" Suddenly, Lightning let go of me and raced off toward a blurry shape in the distance.

The hallway ended and a grand multistory cavern lit up unaided. The source of the light seemed to radiate straight from a blue crystal at its very center.

"Why does this look so famil…." Her words died off.

By the time I caught up with Lightning, she had placed her hand to the illuminated crystal. It was a throne, with outcroppings jutting from the top like spires. Its seat was so far off the ground that she would've had to make a series of running flips to reach it. I doubted I could have scrambled up there if I tried. The throne glowed through her palm, revealing every vein and bone in her hand. Then something else caught her attention. She peered around the back side of the pillar.

"There's someone here," she said, not particularly to me.

"Hold on," I tried to grasp for her, wanting to pull her out of whatever trance she was in.

She would always be faster than me, stronger than me, better than me in almost every way. But impulsivity, well, we both sucked at that one.

Before I could get a hold of her, she'd darted behind the throne and lunged for the statue. He was kneeling prostrate. His hair falling beside one side of his face. Bits of crystal looked as if they were caught mid-splash, rising up around his feet. A giant set of spikes burst from his back like frozen wings.

I threw myself at her, and barely managed to latch onto her wrist before her fingertip touched him. Losing balance, I jerked us both to the ground.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she said to me, finally back to normal.

I barely heard her, because like an idiot, I braced myself on the nearest object to stand. The instant my palm made contact, an explosion rang across the cavernous room. Dust rose from the floor and boulders dropped from the ceiling. Rocks pelted us, and I was immediately knocked out.


	2. Pantsed

Chapter 2: Pantsed

"Finally. I was going to leave you here if you didn't wake by the time I'd counted to a hundred again," someone hovering above my face said. The voice was female; it washed in and out of my ears without definition. It should have been Lightning, but I could have been out long enough for a medic to arrive.

"How long was I out?" I blinked, then closed my eyes when the room blurred and spun.

"If I'd finished counting? A little over ten minutes. Far more time than I should be dallying on a battlefield. Caius could return any second. Get up. I can't drag you any further."

Counting, battlefield, Caius? Whoever this woman was, she kept speaking nonsense. Sitting up, I took a second stab at opening my eyes. The rubble surrounding my body wasn't from the cave's collapse. We were several stories up, in a ruined city, protected only by the crumbling floor above us. A couple of paces ahead of me, the entire front of the building had collapsed at some point in the past. I had a vantage of a rocky and blackened beach in the distance.

This wasn't the far end of the Pulsian desert, that was for certain. I turned to my apparent savior. "What the hell are you wearing?" I asked, alarmed.

Lightning was crouched next me, weapon balanced across both her knees, surveying me with just as much scrutiny. The gunblade wasn't even her Blazefire or any of the other sabres she'd found and modified in recent years. It was long, straight, and not remotely military issue. Neither was her outfit. I'd say her mostly metallic ensemble (boots, breastplate, belt, gauntlets, shoulder things) was probably more protective than her usual canvas getup, except, a flash of skin at her upper thigh revealed that her armor wasn't pants. Basically, her boots almost reached her underwear, and those were barely covered by the leather ribbons of a loincloth. Why her knees were protected by enormous pointed guards, but her hip joints were bare confused the hell out of me.

But, the most unsettling thing about her was easily her face. I'd spent years, initially unintentionally but then later with full intention, observing her features. Flesh would fill out specific areas, scars would develop, lips would chap in winter, and freckles would form in long summers. This woman had none of those things. She was a blank slate, almost like someone had seen her from a distance, known she was beautiful, and then sculpted what they'd assumed would suit her best.

All of the qualities that made her radiant, terrifying, awe inspiring, and otherworldly were there. This was the woman who brought down a planet. However, this was not a woman I remotely knew.

"Why did you count to a hundred?" Out of all the questions I could have come up with, I asked the stupidest one. I didn't bother formulating another.

She lifted a knee, letting the blade teeter in a calculated motion until its tip clinked against the face of my watch. My timepiece flashed every letter and number simultaneously. No date, no time, just an endless loop of the Cocoonian alphabet and numerical system.

"Time doesn't pass in Valhalla. It is always dusk. When I need to know things, for instance how long I've been dressing a wound, I count seconds. I've tried making tallies in the Goddess's palace. Originally it was for days passed. But things written become arbitrary, and the longer I spent here, I lost track. I could never tell if I'd been gone days, weeks, months, or if only minutes had passed since I last stood marking the stone wall. Thus, I only count if necessary. Counting aloud is the safest bet."

"Oh," I responded a little dimly.

"My turn." She stood, then grabbed my hand to pull me to my feet. "How did you get here? I don't see a gate."

"I don't even know where here is, much less how we got here."

Her eyebrows pinched along with her frown; less wrinkles formed than I was accustomed to. "I never said I didn't know how _I_ came to be here, I was questioning your arrival."

The more she spoke, the more the cadence of her voice seemed off. Her sound, her patterns, her damn vocabulary appeared formulaic. Each word was modulated, reined in, like she'd almost forgotten what conversation was. Or, conversely, how talking to me should be entirely different than talking to anyone else.

"Light." As I spoke, she flinched. "I don't understand a goddamn word coming out of your mouth. Probably a concussion, or maybe I'm in a coma. Either way, if you think you've spent years wherever we are, then you need to get your ass over here."

She'd been striding a couple of paces ahead of me, leading us somewhere. I clasped at her belt where it arched above her hip to allow free movement of her legs. Once I'd hooked it, I yanked forcefully and spun her into my arms. I slipped my free hand to the back of her neck, so as to pull her flush to my body. What I expected to be a soothing gesture for the both of us had an entirely different effect. Simultaneously she bit my shoulder like a feral canid and kneed me in the gut. Obviously, I released her. Blade already drawn, she jumped back and took a defensive stance.

"What the hell was that?" I said, shaking myself out. Thankfully, I'd barely been able to feel her teeth through my heavy gear.

"Just because I've hugged you as a child in pain, doesn't give you the right to attack me like that. I thought you were going to..."

For the briefest of moments, whatever was interfering with her personality fluttered away like a curtain before immediately snapping back in place. Fleetingly, she was recognizable, then all at once she wasn't.

"I give up." I bent over, scratched my head, and shook my hair in frustration before standing straight again.

* * *

Finally in the thick of it, the absence of time began ringing true. Lightning led us through the maze-like abandoned city. The journey could have lasted anywhere from hours to mere minutes. The ache in my extremities was the only indicator that we'd been traveling a heck of a long time.

Abruptly, she halted in front of a doorway several flights up some decrepit palace.

"Wait here," she said, motioning me to sit on an ornate but rotted bench. "I need to ask her what to do with you."

"Who?"

My question was left unanswered as she disappeared through the two-story high double doors.

"Great," I mumbled to myself. "I'm gods know where, Light has brain damage, and this is probably hell. But what am I doing? Waiting patiently for someone to pass judgement." I nudged a loose corner of the stone flooring, causing a pebble to break loose. "A smarter person would take this chance to run."

The door groaned open. "That won't be necessary. Follow me."

The room we entered was less like the darkened city and more like the underground temple. Tapestries depicting fal'Cie victories hung from the walls, radiant blue light spilled from an enormous throne, and the floor gleamed from regular maintenance. The ceiling had caved in, exposing the ever twilight sky, and a deep gash in the building separated us from the throne. Lightning had made the repairs she could, but the makeshift bridge of pipes and beams seemed questionable at best, lethal at worst. She'd even mended the tapestries with knots and misshapen woolen stitches scattered amongst the silk.

"The Divine and Sorrowful Goddess Etro refuses to explain your presence here. Only, that as I have done with Noel, I must ferry you from the Unseen Realm back to the land of the present."

After extending her hand, the air near her fingertips crackled in a golden light. With a snap of her fingers, a person sized seam appeared.

"Come," she said, gesturing toward the glowing, sparking, pocket of air like it were a totally normal threshold.

"Perhaps, there's a less electric means of transportation," I said, hesitantly edging toward it.

"Do not question the Goddess." Her voice was even, but carried weight.

"Fine, fine. If I'm already dead, what's a little shock going to hurt?"

Clearly she'd had enough of me, because I felt her boot hit my back sending me tumbling forward into an expanse of nothingness. The disorientation barely lasted before I lurched forward, my feet slogging through tall, wet grass.

Lightning took a deep breath behind me, then let it all out. She repeated this several times until I turned around. Her eyes were closed as she took in the moisture, and sun, and pollen which lifted off the blossoms crowding our feet. Every second since I'd awoken had been more confusing than the one before it.

"I can't believe she let me come," she whispered cupping her hands over her mouth.

"I take it you don't visit Pulse often?"

We'd arrived within the Yaschas Massif in the midst of spring. I hadn't visited there in years, but I could recognize it on sight. Getting home from this distance would be a trek, but the pass was doable in this season. If it were winter, getting to Oerba would require more equipment. Especially with Lightning flouncing around in her underwear and pretend-pants.

"I'm gonna call Rygdea, see if anyone can either pick us up or meet us halfway to Oerba."

Not wanting to be rerouted through various communication centers, I didn't bother with my watch. I pulled my phone from one of the pockets on my vest and located his personal number.

Positively nothing happened. No ring. No attempt at connection. The screen lit up with his name, then immediately cycled back to the home screen as if connection were an impossibility.

"Duck."

I half-yelped, half-gagged as she snapped me behind a bush by the back of my collar. Expecting to see a monster, I peeked between the leaves. All I actually saw were two human figures wandering aimlessly through the foliage.

"We took a wrong turn. I've seen that same boulder three times," a young woman said.

"Different boulder. I know my rocks, trust me," a male still in his teens replied.

"And I know when we're lost."

"And it's a heck of a lot harder when we don't have lamps and signs saying 'Academy basecamp this way.'"

"Because no one needs lamps and signs when the sun is out. They can see the ruins are that direction. Some of the buildings are visible from here."

"Well, then you navigate."

I felt embarrassed for them and sympathetic for Vanille and anyone else who had to listen to me and Lightning bicker constantly on the Comm Devices. Note to self: you never know when someone is listening. Try not to be a jackass.

* * *

**Author's note:**

**So...I've been workin' on this thing on and off for months. I'm not anywhere near finished, and I won't be for a long time. I'd been leery about posting a WIP because I know how awful waiting can be -_-**

**However, I uploaded ch1 to AO3 back in July and recently decided that wasn't exactly fair for ppl who read strictly here. Forgive me. So now everyone gets a chapter two :D**

**No word on when I'll update again. But see ya when I see ya.**

**-R**


	3. Present Company

Chapter 3: Present Company

I peeked out from our location. What I didn't expect was to recognize one of the two individuals in front of us. Lightning clamped her hand over my mouth, as if I were going to say anything. I had no idea who the boy was, but the pink haired woman was clearly Serah. At the same time, she wasn't.

She, wearing a corseted mini dress, was arguing with a guy around my age. I only noticed the dress because it was absurdly tiny and had no sleeves. Now that I saw her on a regular basis, I'd call her style 'teacher chic.' There was always some sort of sleeve, a collar, plaid had to feature somewhere, and if it wasn't warm enough for sandals she wore her high tops. The woman was in her early twenties, and she'd rocketed straight to mom-fashion the second she'd had her daughter.

"Noel, I swear…" she said, completely irritated.

"What? I'm not like your students, you don't scare me."

Lightning removed her hand from my face, but signaled that I was to remain silent. Even though Serah and her companion were shuffling around aimlessly, we let them take a lead. Lightning meant for us to follow them, but there was only so much cover for us to use. We almost lost them as we dodged and scuttled from bush to bush .

If they hadn't been arguing, they wouldn't have missed all of the signs. Ready to finally rest, I pointed Lightning in the direction of an obvious dirt road. Noel and Serah had circled the encampment more than once. If that was their ultimate goal, then they'd get there eventually. There was no need for us to wait around.

Lightning noticed an overlook atop the surrounding cliffs. Once we climbed up there, we'd be safe from view but fully able to watch her sister.

* * *

A half hour passed by before Serah and Noel found their way to the camp.

My uniform was designed for the rainy season in the desert. I was prepared for dry desert heat, and the converse flash flooding. But she and I weren't trekking through the dirt, tracing arroyos back to their beginnings, searching for cover in caves, or any of the other terrible outdoorsy things I'd been subjected to all week. No. Lightning and I were with our bellies to the grass, getting bit by insects unresponsive to my bug spray, spying on an Academy outfit from atop a mesa.

She and I had watched men and women running around taking readings. A few were testing soil samples, others were scanning rocks, and several looked to be translating glyphs. Apparently the Paddra Ruins had been excavated since the last time I'd been there.

She stole my binoculars and started changing all of my settings. No use grabbing them back, it had taken me forever to figure out how to focus them in the first place. Of course she would immediately know what to do with Guardian Corps tech. I rolled onto my side with my head propped on my arm. From our location, we couldn't hear any conversation.

Those same scientists instantly stood at attention when Serah and Noel wandered up. They weren't the source of the tension. The crowd parted as a man raced out to greet the newcomers. He'd been busy within a tent and had yet to reveal himself.

The instant I saw him, I knew something was wrong. I'd been trying to ignore it, that lingering feeling that I was completely out of my element. What should have been obvious the second I woke up in Valhalla was finally catching up with me.

Lightning had been acting strangely because she didn't _know_ me. I wasn't the Hope Estheim she knew. The silver haired man talking to Serah was.

I wasn't her Hope.

She wasn't my Lightning.

Things were about to become very confusing, very quickly.

"Hey," I asked, turning away from the campground. "Who exactly is the Academy?"

"I figured as much," Lightning said. She drummed her fingers on the ground. "They're an organization that...well ultimately they make several mistakes. From what I'm told." When she glanced at me, I couldn't help but flinch. There was a dark judgment in her eyes. "That aside, they lead humanity for the next several centuries. The Goddess Etro claims you are their leader. But that obviously isn't true. I guessed as much when you cracked your head open over nothing. I couldn't even find what you tripped on or what attacked you. No one that stupid could affect change at that scale."

"Of course I'm not their leader," I snipped defensively. I couldn't even ask a question without getting torn down. If anything, Lightning reminded me of those days when we'd first met. What had only been a few years was actually a sizable chunk of my short life. "But out of all the places, why are we _here_ watching them? Is something supposed to happen? Hold up. What do you mean they're going to lead humanity for centuries?"

"They will."

"As in, _the future_. They will for sure do this in the future."

"Yes. In most timelines."

"Timelines?" I'd taken a harder blow to the head than I'd thought.

"Yes," she answered, her agitation growing. "If no time passes in Valhalla, then by definition all time passes outside of its borders. As for your other question. I don't know. I rarely pick the destination. And I am only ever given the role of observer. I assume it's because she desires firsthand knowledge of the adjustments taking place."

On any other day, perhaps I'd have some sort of mental breakdown. Today, I decided to roll with it. There'd never been much harm in letting Lightning drag me around by the ear. Truthfully, it had always ended wonderfully for me.

"Doesn't being a spy bore you? When was the last time you talked to someone? Present company notwithstanding."

"I'm not allowed."

"What, like Etro has some company policy?"

The corner of her mouth twitched, almost but not quite forming a smile. I was getting through to her. Finally.

"You shouldn't talk about the Goddess like that. But no, there's no written agreement that I adhere to. I'm simply her vassal, and upon my appointment I've been able to hear her thoughts. When she wishes to share them. It's difficult to explain."

There was something she was leaving out, intentionally. There was no way that a woman who did all in her power to change our fates would blindly follow a Goddess we'd never heard of.

She resumed watching the camp. "There are certain events which the future relies on. For example: there are flans that feast on the crystal pillar. Everything goes to shit if they do. Things go to shit slower when they don't." She shrugged her shoulders. "In all timelines you lead the Academy as their Director and Serah chases after Caius." She gritted her teeth. "Which is a necessary evil; it keeps him busy. I can't fight him every second of my life for all eternity."

There was that Caius again. She was terribly half-assed with her explanations.

"Anyway. Neither you nor Serah would've left New Bodhum should I have remained on Pulse. So other than Noel, you are my first human contact since the battle with Orphan."

* * *

A young woman continually chased after the Director. She wore the same yellow uniform as the people around her, but she'd obviously made alterations. Instead of pants she wore shorts, and instead of long sleeves, hers were cropped. From our distance I couldn't tell if her vest-corset-piece was for show or actually a holster. The Director didn't carry a weapon and neither did most of the scientists. Everything about her looked engineered to suit her needs. The only thing I couldn't place was her hair. For some reason, her blonde bob seemed…off.

"We need to get closer," Lightning said. "I can't read lips, so my guesses are limited. The woman following the Director appears to be his assistance. Her name starts with either an 'ah' or an 'uh' sound. He keeps talking to her by name. Maybe it's Amanda? Or Alanna?"

"Alyssa," I corrected. "Her name is Alyssa."

"You know her?" she asked.

"Never met her." There was no reason for me to be certain of her name. However, once it had come out of my mouth I'd known it was correct.

Being around Lightning was not unlike talking to a brick wall. It was strong, imposing, time and weather chipped away at it, but it had zero interest in anyone's opinion. She was eternally bored of me. Even if she'd been given the task to 'ferry' me here, she acted more like I was excess baggage that she was eager to unload.

"Since we don't have a particular directive, I don't see why we can't just go down there," I said.

However, it was obvious she didn't put a single thought to her sibling or me. The second the Director had rolled up, Lightning only had eyes for him. Instead of shadowing Serah like we'd done for an hour, suddenly she'd started rushing along the canyon edge. Then she'd begun descending the nearest cliff face, following the Director back to a series of pop-up tents.

And we'd stayed. For hours. We'd been watching via my binoculars as Serah and Noel had scuttled around talking to people. The Director had flipped through folders, typed on a computer, drank something, ate his lunch, took what I assumed were bathroom breaks, and turned some sort of machine on and off. Neither of us could tell what the object was, but every time he messed with it, he, Serah, Noel, and his assistant would stare at the sky in awe.

All I saw were clouds, so, to me it seemed like a bunch of children enamored with cloud formations. Maybe one looked like a ship. Hell if I knew.

"Spying will get us nowhere. You're a punch first, think later type of woman anyway."

Placing the binoculars to the ground, she faced me. "You know why."

"The universe is not going to split apart if I run into myself." I flipped onto my back and looked at the sky, trying to find shapes, but only seeing a possible rainstorm looming to the East. "And even if that were the case, that shouldn't stop _you_ from going down there. Maybe then we can get a better idea of why the Goddess sent us here in the first place."

"They think I'm dead." Putting the lenses back to her eyes, she resumed watching the Director. "If you want to screw things up, then by all means. Run down there."

* * *

**Author's Note: That's right, a new chapter! Thank you for sticking around for so long!  
**

**My hope is to finish this thing, by the end of the year. Hah, we'll see if I'm capable of keeping my promises. At the very least, if I haven't updated between now and December, feel free to remind me.**

**Also, I'd like to give a mucho-gigantic thank you to _yinuj_ for agreeing to beta the hell out of this for me. :D**


	4. And So We Meet Again?

Chapter 4: And So We Meet… Again?

I could say, with great certainty, that I'd made a mistake. Involving the Director in our lives was a terrible idea.

One would think that someone literally crashing through the side of a tent would cause alarm. Lightning had decided that it was now or never. I was her one way to participate in her surroundings without officially disobeying the Goddess. However, some warning would've been appreciated. Before I knew what was happening, she'd dragged me at a full run toward the basecamp. Then, she'd released, launching me downhill. I'd tumbled my way in and created a new but probably unwanted entrance.

The Director had simply looked up from his computer, cocked his head, shrugged, and then greeted me.

The difference between Lightning and him was his ability to explain himself. In a matter of minutes he'd showed off his oracle drive, what it did, and given me an image of Caius. All of this without my asking.

He'd just said, "Couldn't you have arrived earlier when I went over this with Serah? I've had enough time-travel paradoxes for the day."

If I was capable of taking things in stride, then nothing could catch the Director off guard. A person needed to question at least a few things in life; at least, I thought so.

I studied engineering and the mechanical sciences, but he lived in the realm of the hypothetical. Pseudo-science. He wanted to believe that some child Seeress had psychic-future-telling abilities. Sure, magic was a thing, and the l'Cie dealt with it in closer contact than others. Manadrives were proof that we could deconstruct magic's makeup and reconstruct it.

Telepathic abilities? I called bullshit on that, much less that a child could use them.

"But look," he said, pointing to the oracle drive for the umpteenth time. I'm sure everyone on his team was ready to turn the damn machine off. "Lightning is trapped forever unless we do something."

I wanted to drag him straight to the top of the encampment and shout. "No she's not. She's literally right there, safe and sound. And you're an idiot. And you need to be doing something a hell of a lot more useful than chasing a ghost." Of course, I didn't say any of that. Instead, I'd looked at him with a shrug and said nothing.

"We need to save her," he said, a little more pragmatically this time.

"Don't you think she has better things to do?" I asked, sneaking two battered comm devices off his desk and into my pocket. I made a mental note of the frequency they were trained to. Currently I had no way of contacting Lightning. As long as I secured the line, we could use them in the future. "Serah and a stranger show up then vanish. Your duplicate," I fan the air between us, "drops in for a visit, and all you can think about is a destroyed video loop? Get your head out of your ass."

The Director sighed deeply and dropped into his chair. "Alyssa's been concerned about my vitamin intake, maybe I'm hallucinating at this point." He ran his hand through his hair and then tugged, testing for pain at his follicles. "Study paradoxes enough and your entire life becomes one. A parenthetical phrase with no conclusion or explanation. Continuity and logic is a foreign concept to me." He swiped downward, scrubbing at his face. "Endless instances of déjà vu, only I'm on the wrong side of them. Instead of 'this has happened before' it's a feeling of 'oh, so that _already_ happened and I missed it.'"

The man was having a nervous breakdown. While my father had kindly waited for a midlife crisis, the Director had sprinted right ahead to a quarter-life one.

I waved my arms around in what I assumed was a historically-inaccurate-séance-like gesture. "This is all a dream, Hope," I intoned with zero sincerity. "Before you wake, I need to know what Serah and the boy told you." My mocking lasted less than it took to speak. A pen beamed me between the eyes.

"I thought you'd come with valuable information, or at least supernatural resources like they did. Instead you show up younger and begging for intel. That's my sort of luck isn't it? Serah greets Alyssa, a total stranger at the time, and triggers a chain of events. But who comes to me? My naïve, younger self." He gritted his teeth and growled. "At least their paradoxes make sense. They correct things, so only one timeline ever exists at any given moment. Simultaneously occurring from all points in time, but each doubled back on one another. But _we_ clearly don't. Because I never traveled forward."

"You look like your brain is twenty seconds away from exploding."

He touched the pads of his fingers together, connecting his hands along the length of his digits and finally meeting at the palms. "You're throwing a wrench into my life's work. Forgive me if I'm tense." Bringing his hands toward his face, he repeatedly jabbed his forehead with his thumbs.

"Then pretend I'm a little bit outside the system." '_Like Lightning_,' I thought to myself.

"Fine," he said, taking a breath. "What do you want?"

"Is the kid protecting Serah?"

"Yes," he answered. Perhaps he expected something more specific.

I didn't particularly know why I was there either. We'd spied for hours; he didn't have much extra to offer in person. Maybe I was supposed to ask about the assistant? Lightning had gotten testy whenever the woman wasn't running errands.

"Ok. Good." I peeked out the entry flap. "Who's the blonde?"

"Alyssa is my personal assistant."

"Just assistant?" I raised my eyebrow. "She was pretty handsy with you earlier."

"How long were you spying on me?" A flush covered his cheeks.

Crossing my arms, I concealed a laugh in my elbow. "She was leading you by the arm. If anything racier happened, I'm glad I missed it."

I shivered at the thought of her mouth anywhere near him. I, and I guessed by extension _we_, had a type. She wasn't it. He looked away nervously, which got me thinking. My type was very much: angry, beautiful, strong, grouchy, single-minded, and loved me unconditionally. Basically, she was Lightning and everyone else was a means to pass time until I'd stopped being stupid. A luxury I was afforded. Without Lightning, would I have even settled down?

I'd never met Alyssa, but I couldn't find any redeeming qualities as of yet. "She good at her job?" Good grief, was I holding a meeting on which interviewees had a decent work ethic? I needed to come up with something else. He already thought I was useless. "Did Snow ever get his degree?" Someone needed to hold me down and tape my mouth shut. Years of standing beside a silent Lightning had sapped my talent for small talk.

"Huh?"

"You know, Serah didn't have any trouble with her teaching license, but Snow was having a hell of a time supporting them while taking courses."

"Snow went missing." His face became extremely pale. "Almost a decade ago. His airship went down. There were no survivors." He looked away from me, focusing on the oracle drive. "There was a funeral. Serah had left by then, so only NORA and I attended. She doesn't know, and I didn't have the heart to tell her."

A lump built in my throat. Snow. A man who'd gained baby weight alongside Serah. A man who, for no reason whatsoever, had been blissfully happy. He didn't exist here. As much as he drove me nuts, I still loved him. He'd be my brother-in-law if Lightning ever got around to actually marrying me.

If.

If I ever got home.

There was no way to lighten the mood after that. I thought about slipping away. The Director would be the only one to have seen me. He could pretend this had been a nightmare. Obviously he didn't know anything useful for Lightning. He was so hung up on the Farseers, but he didn't even know Caius's weakness.

Then, Alyssa entered the tent. From a distance, there had been something that had caught my attention. Up close, I knew exactly what it was. Her name wasn't the only thing I'd recognized. I'd _seen_ her before.

My father and I had spent the fourth anniversary of the Purge alone. Although we'd agreed to celebrate in New Bodhum with Serah, no one had been up to it when Lightning had been deployed. So much for keeping promises. Every year prior, she'd been with me. Yet when we'd officially become a couple, she hadn't had the decency to visit my mother's monument. I'd known I'd been acting petty, but if she'd let her job get in the way of one promise, surely there'd be others. Regardless, I'd tried not to take it too hard, especially after she'd explained that she'd already –technically- discussed the issue privately the year before. Trust Lightning to ask my deceased mother permission before she'd bothered to even alert _me _to her feelings. The woman lived her life by the book.

Thankfully, she'd made time as soon as she'd returned to the Capital.

We'd visited the cenotaph as a trio as always. However, we hadn't found ourselves alone this time. A couple, my father's age, had sat on the bench. They'd looked up at us upon our approach, and then continued to stare at me. The woman had begun crying, while her husband had rubbed soothingly at her back.

"If you still need a moment, we can return later," Lightning had said, bowing her head.

My father, however, had walked past her and kneeled at the monument's base where he'd begun lighting his candle.

"There is no need Ma'am. It's just…" the woman had spoken between sobs. "Your brother is around the age our daughter would've been."

"He's not my brother, he's my," Lightning had started angrily.

"I'm so sorry for your loss," I'd told the couple while elbowing my fiancé. "Now's not the time," I'd whispered to her between my teeth.

"Oh my, I didn't mean to… I take it you are lovers then? Alyssa was only fourteen when it happened. She'd been too busy studying her little heart out to find the time for boys. I guess this would be about the time. The two of us married when we were twenty after all." The woman had smiled sadly at her husband.

"Is this Alyssa?" my father had asked, pointing to a picture by still burning votives.

Lightning and I had leaned over his shoulder. The photo had been of a young blonde girl with pigtails. She'd been all smiles as she'd stood in front of a science fair project. Her fingers had been in a peace sign as she'd held up a first place medal with her other hand.

"May she find peace in the afterlife."

"I'm sure she would have been an honor to meet," I'd added.

There she was. Alyssa was standing right in front of me. Calculatedly, she looped her arm with the Director.


	5. Number One

Chapter 5: Number One

Alyssa was alive and well. I clocked her ring finger. And apparently unmarried. Well, her parents wouldn't have been surprised by that. Choosing a career over marriage seemed in line with what little I knew about her.

"This is my…cousin," the Director said, introducing me.

She rolled her eyes and giggled. It wasn't the pleasant sound of joyous laughter. There was a clear depth of mocking. "My specialty is paradoxes, and you're honestly telling me that he's your cousin?"

The Director shrugged, trying to keep up his charade.

"Then what's your name?" Holding up her fingers, she began a rapid countdown. "Three, two, one. And?"

I stuttered. How had I not thought of an alias, alibi, or any of the things I would've had time for if Lightning hadn't chucked me. "I've got nothing," I said.

It was obvious why Alyssa served as his assistant. She took no bullshit. She perfectly fit the criteria of any woman whom I'd ever involved myself with. Like Fang, Vanille, and Lightning before her, she didn't view him as an equal despite his status as her boss. I snorted. He wasn't in a romantic relationship with her. Those intimate touches earlier had been a display of dominance. That was something about her I immediately liked.

"So have you explained what you're doing here yet?" As she said this, she'd pulled a spectrometer from her pocket. With no regards for my personal space, she began scanning the top of my head. "And before you ask, we gave our last fragment to Noel. So you better have one of your own if you intend to use the gate."

"Happenstance," I said, ducking away from the device. "Don't know what a fragment is." I kept erratically moving around the room trying to escape her. "I have alternate means of travel."

When I leapt over a stack of paperwork and sent them skittering through the air, the Director finally stopped her. I took that as my opportunity to make a run for it. Perhaps not the politest of exits. I'd left them with more questions than answers, but I needed to get back to Lightning.

* * *

The rush had been unnecessary. Lightning was lazily leaning against a boulder. My binoculars swung from her hand, bumping against her hip. The plastic of the casing made a muted whump against the metal of her armor.

"Gather any useful information?" she asked.

"Not really," I answered breathlessly. "They know a little about the unseen realm, but nothing that might help you." I leaned over and held at my side. There'd been far too much running today. "But I did grab these."

She caught the stolen communicator I tossed to her. "I don't plan on spending much more time with you. This isn't necessary."

"This isn't about me." I fiddled with the dials. "Set it to this symbol if we get separated. Otherwise, keep it where it is." A continuous stream of back and forth chatter came out of the comm device. "You can listen in. These seem specific to the Academy just like mine is for the Guardian Corps."

Lightning had been holding hers up to her ear when she looked at me. She tipped her head and raised an eyebrow. She was judging me, and I came up wanting.

I sighed. "No. I didn't enlist. Because of Light, sometimes I end up in unpredictable situations." Just like Sazh, I'd gotten dragged into their crap. When that first unexpected paycheck had come from the whole Vanille fiasco, I'd been in shock. Despite my continuous missteps, they'd seen value in it.

Lightning nodded, and a smile settled on her face. If there had been a right answer, that had been it. Was I not supposed to follow in her footsteps? Wasn't that exactly what the Director was currently doing? But we'd already been over that. I wasn't leadership material.

"How do you keep track of all of that?" she asked. "Talking about me in the third person," she clarified.

"What do you mean? You are you, and Light is Light." It made clear sense in my mind. One was a person who I'd known only briefly, but was becoming reacquainted with. The other was a woman I knew as well as myself. Though I'd technically called them both Light. Things might have been easier if my current companion were the grouchy sergeant I'd first met. At least then, she'd be Lightning by default. "It's kind of like how you might have two classmates with the same name. You know who you're talking about by context. You don't always have to say 'Kai number one' and 'Kai number two.' People generally know who you're referring to."

"You're the one who wants to differentiate us. Isn't it odd for you to say 'Light,' expecting that I can infer whom you're talking about? Make it easier for me and anyone else we might run into."

"I've only mentioned her once. And I thought we wouldn't be spending time together, muchless be running into other people." When I said this, she grimaced. She wasn't even the one who'd had to meet an alternate version of herself. "Then, would you mind," I said, monitoring her expression. "If I called her Claire?"

Her lips immediately tightened and her eyelid twitched. "You sure you have permission for that?"

"I've known her for years. Did you honestly think I'd keep calling her by a pseudonym the whole time?" In all fairness, I totally did. Her legal name had no interest to me. Light rolled off my tongue from repetition. The person she was and the person I knew were as different as the boy I'd been back in Palumpolum and who I was now. I didn't know the girl that had decided to reinvent herself for her sister's sake. If this made things easier for Lightning, then fine. I'd be accommodating. Because bending over backwards specifically for her had been and would always be one of my personality traits.

"Not even Serah uses that word."

What a strange nerve to hit. Claire hadn't had that sort of response when she'd told me. It had just been an offhand remark. We'd been walking through the city when she'd suddenly turned her head like she'd been called. A father had been reprimanding his child for letting go of his hand and racing into the street.

She'd just said, "Oh, I thought he was talking to me." Then upon noticing my confusion, she'd added, "It's been years. I don't know why I responded like that." A blush had flooded across her face. "You're free to use it if you want to. I mean, I definitely prefer Light. And I gave _that_ name just to you, but suddenly Snow and everybody started using it." Her lip had curled at the corner in frustration.

I'd chuckled and gripped her hand with a couple of pulses of warmth. "And then what? Claire'll take off like wildfire. I'll stick with Light. It suits you."

I looked at Lightning, "Whether or not Serah uses it, I _can._ So I will."

Her tongue suctioned and clicked against her teeth. She was becoming more frustrated with me by the second. Which was saying something since she'd kicked me earlier.

"I was supposed to bring you here, but I think there must've been an error." She held up her hand and formed another glowing fracture midair. "Time is running thin, I need to be returning anyway."


End file.
